week 1

Films: The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Lotte Reiniger, 1926)

Arrival of the Train at La Ciotat Station Lumiere Brothers, (1895)

Danse Serpentine Lumiere Brothers, (1896)

Danse Serpentine (In a Lion’s Cage) Alice Guy Blache, (1900)

Chiens Savant (Luimere Brothers, 1896)

Explosion of a Motor Car Cecil M. Hepworth, (1900)

Le Voyage dans la lune (Georges Melies, 1902)

Reading Due:

1.     “Cinema 1895-1914” in Popple, Simon and Joe Kember. Early Cinema: From Factory Gate to Dream Factory.  New York: Wallflower, 2004. (EC)

2.     “Introduction” in Grieveson, Lee and Peter Kramer, eds. The Silent Cinema Reader.  New York: Routledge Press, 2004. (TSCR)

I think it goes without saying how different it feels watching a film with absolutely no sound, at least for me. Most films now that are considered silent film still have some sort of sound with it to give the viewers a projected feeling. Because I am not used to this, I find myself adding sound or thinking of sounds that I would see fit for the visuals. For example in Arrival of the Train at La Ciotat Station (Lumiere Brothers, 1895), I hear the movement of the train, the mumbled yelling of the passengers as they rush to broad their train, and just an overall busyness of the scene. I also find it interesting how short in length each film is despite it having so much detail. The films are rapid in movement and selective of when color is added.

Through the variety of films that we saw, you can tell there was a huge change from the 1890s to the 1920s as the length of a film increased and so did the entertainment medium and the experimentation with sound.